Perfect
by Shimegami-chan
Summary: One-shot. An unknown young woman commits a crime, leaving no evidence but a guilty conscience. When a clever, mysterious child questions her actions, though, is the right thing to do to run away - or turn herself in?


Conan is not mine!

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Shi-chan: Ooh! Another Conan one-shot!  
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Perfect  
_by Shimegami-chan_

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A perfect crime.

The plan of legends, executed flawlessly by a modern-day Robin Hood. She stole from the rich and gave to the poor. She had a perfect alibi and she was a model citzen. No witnesses. No motive. No suspects. So...no crime? That's what she wanted them to think. It was well-planned arson, the target the house of a local politician.

Everybody loved the man, Ataru. He was smart, funny, attractive and young. He did a lot for Beika city even before he was elected; spreading his money around, building parks and schools. To the citizens, he was a hero. That, of course, was a carefully-erected facade.

Ataru had a secret that he had hidden for ten long years; one that would ruin his reputation for good. There had been another woman three years into his model marriage. A wild party; a one-night stand. A child, born of one of his hapless secretaries.

Me.

I was fired and left jobless and homeless. Destitute. Two weeks pregnant without even the money to afford an abortion, much less support the child. I carried it to term, living in a shelter, and put it up for an adoption.

My daughter, orphaned from the day she was born, thrived for ten years with adopted parents. She was happy. Free. I was happy that she was growing up in a way she never would have with me...and then tragedy struck, not too long ago. Her guardians were killed in a plane crash, and had no living relatives at all. She returned to the shelters; starving and in shock. No one cared. No one would help her.

My sweet daughter had been torn from her better life, much as I had. I contacted Ataru asking for child support, but he refused, claiming the child wasn't mine. I couldn't pay for testing. He wouldn't help either of us, fearing what his wife would do if she found out that another woman had borne his child. His child! His own flesh and blood, that he would abandon to die!

That was when I decided that he deserved what he got.

I set fire to the house on the day of the election, on the very day that his insurance expired. I destroyed the records before they could be renewed, using the same access code and key that had admitted me when I performed his secretarial duties all those years ago. He couldn't have expected it. Wouldn't have suspected me.

I thought, now he would get a chance to see what it was like to lose everything.

I thought, now he would feel everything that Lily and I went through while he lived in the lap of luxury.

He would understand, and never know that it wasn't an unfortunate accident. The maid had only left the kitchen for a second--barely long enough for me to sneak in the open window and shove the dishcloth into the burner. By the time the terrified maid smelled the smoke and hurried back to check on the soup pot, it was too big to contain.

The house burnt to the ground, and it served Ataru right. He was homeless and nearly penniless after his huge campaign, and when the reults came in he held a mere ten percent of the votes.

I had won. Lily had won.

But something went wrong with the perfect plan.

He was only a child. A boy of about six or seven, dressed in an adult's clothes, in the company of the famous detective Mori Kogoro and his teenage daughter. He wore huge glasses and a red bow tie, and was really the kind of precocious child I would have hoped for myself. Smart. Quick. Witty.

Too smart. He looked myself and the other former employees over, as though staring right into our souls as he looked into our eyes. He settled on me in particular, and Lily behind me. I wished I hadn't brought her, but after she came to the shelter I had decided that I couldn't abandon her again. Not after all she had went through because of me.

One elder lady complained loudly to herself. "Why do we have to be here? We don't even work for this guy anymore!"

Mori glared and silenced her. "I was hired to find the location of the insurance documents, and all of you have worked in Tachikawa's office in the past decade. You'll make things easier for us both if you cooperate."

It was then that I really noticed the boy. Rolling his eyes at Mori's comment, he strolled over to the desk and began to sift idly through it--going straight to the filing cabinet where the notices were kept. After shuffling through a few papers he nodded to himself and began rooting through the desk drawers, without so much as drawing Mori or the girl's attention. He inspected a few envelopes and then closed the drawrer, satisfied.

Mori finished questioning the elderly woman and then turned to me. "And who are you, miss?"

I blushed at his tone and inviting smile. "Kubota Mayami. I was Tachikawa's secretary ten years ago."

Mori looked down at Lily. "Ah! Who might this be? Your little sister?"

"My daughter, Lily." I smiled with pride. "She's ten." Lily smiled shyly at the detective.

Mori looked a little disappointed, but patted Lily's braided hair. "Cute kid. Maybe she can play with Conan. So he won't get in the way. What do you think, Ran?" He looked over his shoulder at his teenage daughter.

Ran shrugged, and the boy at her side looked unimpressed. I guessed that he was 'Conan.' "Maybe," Ran replied. She came forward and knelt to Lily's height. "Hey there, Lily-chan! All this detective stuff is pretty boring, hey?"

Conan looked insulted.

"She looks like you," Ran said with a smile. "Her face, though...it's really familiar. I can't think of who she looks like. Maybe I know her father from somewhere?"

"No, he's dead," I said quickly. Ran frowned and nodded in apology. Conan, however, looked thoughtful.

The kid was really giving me the creeps.

Mori lost interest in my personal life and started asking questions about where the insurance notes were kept when I worked there, and a few other details before giving the OK to send us home. Conan stopped him then, looking inquisitive. "So, who's the criminal?"

"There's no criminal, brat." Mori said in exasperation. "I guess the bills just got lost."

"But the insurance company sent them," the boy argued.

"But they _weren't paid,_ they were probably just buried in a pile of papers." Mori retorted.

"Well, why were the life and auto insurance bills paid, then? Someone must have cancelled the fire one."

Mori dove for the boy. "Stop saying idiotic things! Why did you follow me anyway!?"

Conan shrugged, not replying.

Mori stalked over to Ran and took her arm. "We're leaving. This was obviously just crossed wires that Tachikawa will have to straighten out."

Conan then came over to Lily and gave her a questioning look. "I know who you look like...Tachikawa-san, right? Are you related to him?" I gasped at his frank words.

Ran looked again. "She _does_ look a lot like him!"

"No, no relation," I said quickly, but Mori had already directed his attention back to myself and Lily.

"Kubota-san, why did you stop working for Tachikawa?" Conan asked bluntly.

"I was fired for insubordination." I replied uneasily. Had he guessed? How could he possibly know?

"I see." He turned back to Ran and took her hand, his voice childishly rising an octave. "Oh well, I guess that's that! I'm hungry, Ran-neechan, can we go?"

"Sure." Ran led the boy out of the room with Mori at their heels. Myself and the other office workers followed.

As we waited for our taxis outside the building, the boy walked over to stand beside Lily, offering her a guarded smile. She smiled back shyly. Ran grinned at Conan before turning to argue with her father over that night's dinner.

Conan looked up at me as the taxi pulled into view. "You don't have to be afraid, Kubota-san."

"W-what?" I gripped Lily's small hand.

"Of Tachikawa. If you turn yourself in, then the courts might favour you, and they'll at least take care of Lily. They'll make him pay for support."

"H-How did you know?" I whispered.

He smiled. "The only bill that wasn't paid was for the fire insurance, which tipped me off that the fire had been set. Anyone with access to the building and mailboxes could have taken them, and one of the secretaries told me that the locks haven't been changed in years. Matching that with the similarities between Lily and her father, and the abruptness of your unemployment, it was easy to put together. But I don't have any evidence. No fingerprints to indicate that the fire had been set. Just an accident. No one else suspects arson, and any proof that the insurance bills arrived probably burned with the house. Am I right?"

"They were in the bottom desk drawer," I whispered. "I didn't steal them. But...who are you?"

"Edogawa Conan. A detective." He smiled at me before turning back to Ran, waving from the back of the taxi. "I know you'll do the right thing, Kubota-san. Good-bye."

"Thank you, little detective." I watched him walk away, my grip tightening on Lily's hand. My plan, taken apart in an instant by that child.

What good was a person like me? I fell to my knees on the sidewalk, tears welling in my eyes, knowing what I had to do next. That little boy had looked at me and judged me not as a Robin Hood but as a villain. A vengeful woman who set out to ruin others for what they had instead of being appreciative for the good things in her life.

_I guess,_ thought bitterly, _no alibi can ever be perfect_.

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Shi-chan: For those of you who were hoping for a RanxShinichi sapfest (i.e. the rest of my DC fics), sorry! I tried to do an actual case this time.  
Seki: And badly!


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